Headlines on EU politics

Daily Digest: Barroso eyes momentum for eurozone integration

President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso will push for a plan of further integration in the eurozon, and says he currently has political momentum for such a plan. This momentum lies in the continued worsening of the eurozone crisis. Barroso is to present the Commission’s ideas to EU leaders at the next EU summit in the end of June. These ideas include a banking union, tighter supervision, stability bonds and the possibility of the European Stability Mechanism to lend directly to banks instead of only governments. The ideas are not new, but they are apparently gaining support amid fears of Spain becoming the new Greece. They are still controversial, however, and Germany is particularly opposed to them. Despite this opposition, Barroso is confident that EU leaders’ thinking is constantly evolving, and that “The movement is in favour of more integration in the euro area”.

Despite wanting to keep this close consultation with EU leaders, Mr. Obama is not very popular with one EU leader at the moment, namely the Polish one. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk denounces the President after Obama made an unfortunate remark. In bestowing a Presidential Medal of Freedom on the Polish resistance hero, Jan Karski on Tuesday, President Obama referred to a “Polish death camp” instead of saying a Nazi death camp in Poland. This caused an outrage by Donald Tusk who said Obama was guilty of “ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions”. The medal bestowed on Mr. Karski is the highest American civilian honour. Karski warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the horrors of the Holocaust and was later a professor at Georgetown University in Washington.

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